Microsoft Warned By European Union

Since Microsoft's failure to comply with the European Union's anti-trust rulings, the EU has decided to crack down further on the U.S. based giant warning that more fines may be imposed. After the 2004 case in which it was ruled Microsoft would pay nearly $497 million euros ($656 million USD) for asking unjustifiably high prices for key data sold to competitors, the EU is disappointed to see a lack of change on Microsoft's part.

Brussels criticised the software giant for not changing its behaviour since it was fined 497m euros (£331m) in 2004. In an escalation of its long-running battle with the US firm, Brussels said Microsoft had been seeking unreasonable prices from competitors for key data. In response, Microsoft said the threat of further fines was unreasonable. "In the 50 years of European antitrust policy, it's the first time we've been confronted with a company that has failed to comply with an antitrust decision," a Commission spokesman said.